Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 28, 2025
High-resolution Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Methods for Human Midbrain
Published on: May 10, 2012
Recent Advances in Habenula Imaging Technology: A Comprehensive Review
BingYang Bian1, Bei Zhang1, ChinTing Wong2
1Department of Radiology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Imaging and Big Data, Radiology and Technology Innovation Center of Jilin Province, Jilin Provincial International Joint Research Center of Medical Artificial Intelligence, Changchun, Jilin, 130021, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
The habenula (Hb) is involved in many natural human behaviors, and the relevance of its alterations in size and neural activity to several psychiatric disorders and addictive behaviors has been presumed and investigated in recent years using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Although the Hb is small, an increasing number of studies have overcome the difficulties in MRI. Conventional structural-based imaging also has great defects in observing the Hb contrast with adjacent structures. In addition, more and more attention should be paid to the Hb's functional, structural, and quantitative imaging studies. Several advanced MRI methods have recently been employed in clinical studies to explore the Hb and its involvement in psychiatric diseases. This review summarizes the anatomy and function of the human Hb; moreover, it focuses on exploring the human Hb with noninvasive MRI approaches, highlighting strategies to overcome the poor contrast with adjacent structures and the need for multiparametric MRI to develop imaging markers for diagnosis and treatment follow-up. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 2.
